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THE WAR TO FREE CUBA. 



"Patriotism is again supreme in our hearts. 



R E M ARKS 



OP 



HON. JAMES R.MANN, 

OF ILLINOIS, 
^C/h^^^ IN The 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, 



March 8 and Apr it, 28, 1S9S. 



WASHINGTON. 

1898. 



V* 






<^* 






68471 






REMARKS 

OF 

nON. JAMES E. MANN, 



March S, ISDS. 
$50,000,000 DEFENSE APPROPRIATIOX. 

Mr. MANN. Mr. Speaker, it would be a great pleasure to my 
heart if 1 could subscribe to the idea suggested by the chairman 
of the committee that this is a measure of peace. I have been 
consistently in favor of this country preserving peace, if peace 
could be preserved; but I recognize in this measure now that it 
means war. Believing that, still, when the Administration, which 
has the confidence of the people, asks for money supplies, though 
it may mean war, I say, heartily, that the people are in favor of 
the appropriation. War is not only coming, Mr. Speaker, but war 
now exists between the two countries. Not open war, not de- 
clared war, as we know, but the real, the insidious first entrance 
upon war has already been made. And this country, upon the 
suggestion of the Administration, is now justified in spending its 
money as necessary, its blood.as may be called upon, for the pur- 
pose not of commencing war, but for the purpose, in war, of up- 
holding the honor and the dignity of the countrj', and of bringing 
about peace as soon as possible. [Applause.] 

******* 

Ajyyil 2S, 1S9S. 

WAR REVENUE BILL. 

Mr. HOPKINS. Mr. Chairman, I yield now to the gentleman 
from Illinois [Mr. MannJ . 

Mr. MANN. Mr. Chairman, the spirit of commercialism has 
been subordinated to the spirit of humanity. Patriotism is again 
supreme in our hearts. Greed and the love of gold have yielded to 
the touch of sympathetic nature. No nobler offering to human- 
ity, no greater sacrifice of self-interest, no loftier example of 
human kinship has ever been made. A mighty nation, wholly 

devoted to the arts of peace, absorbed in trade and gain, perme- 
3^87 3 



ated with the desire for wealtii and comforts, without a powerful 
army and with only a moderate navy, goes to war witli a deter- 
mined, cruel, and revengeful people because it dares to fight for 
tiie right and is determined to stop forever the despotic and cold- 
blooded cruelt}- to and robbery of the Island of Cuba by tlie nation 
of Spain. 

To our shame be it said that there are still those in our country 
who are unmoved by the piteous pleadings of the starving thou- 
sands in Cuba and whose eyes do not moisten or liearts swell when 
they read of the starving babes endeavoring vainly to draw sus- 
tenance from the breasts of dead and starved mothers. 

Some of these have hypocritically preached tenderness and 
honor for years, and now their fear of suffering or their greed for 
gain overcomes all other emotions. But they are few in number. 
They do not count in this contest. They are the Judases of our 
nation's real honor. 

A short time ago we engaged in a political contest in our land 
which many of us believed vitally involved the sacred honor of our 
country. The lesson of that campaign would have been lost if it 
had not taught our citizens that the honor of a country is above 
gain, above gold and silver, above ideas of currency or tariff, and 
that the honor of our country can only be sustained and upheld 
by the inner consciousness that we have done that which we be- 
lieve to be right and sacred, whether it means war or peace; 
whether it means the beating of the sword into the plowshare or 
the plowshare into the sword. [Applause.] 

- We do not fight for a fancied slight; we do not fight for a com- 
mercial wrong; we do not fight for an increase of territory; we 
do not fight because our commercial spirit has been outraged; we 
do not fight because our land has been invaded; we fight because 
it has become necessary to fight if we would uphold our man- 
hood; because the leader of nations on our continent can not stand 
idly by while Spain is, with cold blood and cruelty, slaughtering 
and starving our next-door neighbors to death; because unless we 
are willing to fight we must abandon our vaunted pretensions of 
enlightened humanity and civilization; because we can not "pass 
by on the other side."' 

And then we fight for honor. On the 25th of January last the 



U. S. warship Maine, on a peaceful errand, arrived in the harbor 
of Havana, after notice being given to the Spanish authorities at 
that place, and was taken to Buoy No. 4 by tlie regular Spanish 
Government pilot. In the opinion of the board of inquiry tlie 
effect upon the Maine caused by the explosion on February 15 
" could have been produced only by the explosion of a mine situ- 
ated under the bottom of the ship." 

That court found that the loss of the Maine was not in any re- 
spect due to fault or negligence on the part of any of the officers 
or members of the crew, and that it was destroyed by the explo- 
sion of a submarine mine, and that the inquiry court was unable 
to obtain evidence fixing responsibility for the destruction of the 
Maine upon any "person or persons." The J/auiewas moored at 
a place selected by the Spanish pilot; blown up by a submarine 
mine located under the ship. No person could have located the 
mine where it was except Spanish officials, and no one could have 
controlled the shore connection of the mine except Spanish officers. 

The child who can add one to one and make two can tell what 
authority caused the destruction of the Maine. The act has not 
been disavowed by Spain; no Spanish official has been investigated, 
arrested, or punished. The people of America know vvho destroyed 
the Maine. The American Government and the Spanish Govern- 
ment know who destroyed the Maine. "~| 

It has been said that war was terrible; that war is hell. Lot it 
be so! War was terrible when the English Parliament levied a 
small tax upon tea imported to this land, but our forefathers 
fought for freedom. They were not afraid of war, nor are their 
descendants. 

War was terrible in 1812, but the American people, few in num- 
ber and small in wealth, were not then afraid of the mighty power 
of Great Britain. 

War was terrible in 1845, but our people were not afraid to help 
the liberty-loving Texans, and my father was among those who 
then fought for his country and for freedom to another state on 
this continent. 

War was terrible, war was hell, in 1861, but it did not frighten 
either those who wore the.blue or the gray in behalf of what they 
believed to be right and freedom. 

33S7 



6 

Has war grown so terrible that we now are afraid of it? Shall 
we muffle our ears and blind our eyes and pluck out our hearts to 
the piteous moanings and pleadings of the starving thousands in 
Cuba because we are afraid to spill our blood? Thank God, the 
American people have red blood instead of ice water running in 
their veins! 

"^ I was for peace. I wanted this countrj' to attend to her own 
affairs. I did not think that we ought to interfere between Spain 
and her rebellious subjects. I was not in favor of the Cuban 
plank in the national Republican platform when it was adopted. 
I did not then know the facts. No one now disi^utes the facts. 
The facts being admitted, the conclusion is inevitable. There is 
but one thing for us to do. We should free the Island of Cuba 
from Spanish interference or control. We should return the first 
deadly blow of war given us when the Spanish officials, by delib- 
erate, i^reconceived intention, destroyed our war vessel and mur- 
dered our sailors. Whether war be terrible or whether war be 
hell or not, no people or nation is worth surviving or is entitled 
to the blessings of freedom who will not fight under such circum- 
stances. We would all hail honorable peace, but there can be no 
honor coupled with peace now. 

Have we grown so rich, so enervated, .so attached to the unholy 
dollar, that we are afraid to fight for freedom? We freely ten- 
dered our sympathies to the Armenians suffering from Turkish 
cruelty. Shall we prove ourselves cowards by refusing to tender 
our sympathies, coupled with our might, to the Cubans? 

No, Mr. Chairman, we have taken our stand. We insist that 
no nation on this continent shall have the liberty to torture and 
starve her subjects deliberately and coldly to death, and that 
position we are willing to defend with our fortunes and our lives. 

Washington led an army and a people through a war against 
foreign oppression and to obtain their independence. Lincoln 
led the North through a war to preserve the integrity of our na- 
tion and the liberties and rights of our people. Lee led the people 
of the South through a war when they believed that they battled 
for the freedom of their firesides and the rights of their States. 
But the noblest and most inspiring example of history is Presi- 
dent McKinley, holding aloft the Stars and Stripes over an undi- 



vided North and South, leading the American people and the 
modern civilization to the rescue and relief of suffering and tor- 
tured and pleading humanity, for the sake of humanity, and to 
satisfy the longings of the enlarged sou!. [Applause.] 

Mr. Chairman, we can not carry on this war without money. 
It requires cash in hand. There must be no doubt in the start of 
the power of the Government to incur the necessary obligations 
and to pay all of its bills promptly. The Republican party pro- 
poses, as set forth in the bill novf before the House, to raise the 
money by the means usually adopted in times of war. There is 
nothing new in the scheme proposed by the Republicans. No 
new experiment is to be made. On the other hand, the proposi- 
tion submitted by the Democratic members of the committee is 
one of visionary schemes and theoretical speculations. It involves 
the change of the policy of our Government. It introduces at 
once the most bitter partisan politics; and if carried into effect by 
the adoption of it as a -law, it strikes a deadly blow at the honor 
of our countrj- and the preservation of its financial credit. 

It is the duty of the Republican party at this time, while it is 
endeavoring to obtain freedom for a foreign people, to presexwe 
unquestioned the integrity and honor of the credit of our coiintry 
and to keep untarnished and uninjured the solid financial policy 
voted for by the American people less than two years ago. 

The Republican party, which has never faltered in its duty, 
"Which has never failed in its obligations to the people, will not 
betray our country now. 

A free flag will soon float over the Island of Cuba, and the honor 
and financial integrity of the United States will at the same time 
be absolutely maintained. 

May God bless our President, our country, and our cause. [Ap- 
plause.] 

O 



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